Strategic Growth on Amazon in 2019

Winning on Amazon is a simple equation

Traffic plus Conversion minus Defects equals Growth

For every business on Amazon, there is the question – what should I focus on this year to grow my business to the goals I want to achieve? We all know what the goal is: sell a lot and make money! But, the details on how to get there can be a bit more murky as we zero in on that goal.

Driving Traffic

Get all of your products on an automatic advertisement – even if it’s only $5/day. The value of the customer search term information alone is worth the cost.

If you’re growing:

Test your primary image conversion by using one image for a week, then a different image for a week while changing nothing else and evaluate whether the conversion rate changes (unit session percentage in the Business Reports, Detail Page Sales and Traffic by Child Item).

Take customer search term data from your advertising report, and sort only the items that have had sales. Use the converting keyword search terms to insert the highest converting keywords into the title, and throughout the bullets and into the backend search terms.

Use a research tool to find what your competitors are ranking for, and then bid against those in a manual keyword based advertisement.

Driving Conversion

Research the questions and answers on your top competitor’s page. Catalog the most commonly asked questions with the highest quantity of upvotes and answers.

For example, a question with 4 updates and 4 answers would have 8 points. Once you’ve sorted them, re-organize your bullets in the same order as the questions that were asked – and of course, make sure you’ve answered those questions!

If you’re growing:

Lifestyle images are absolutely critical for increasing conversion over time – but sometimes, we forget to think about how our secondary images are perceived on mobile devices. When you swipe right, are the pictures engaging enough not to lose your customer?

Try reordering your pictures on the same basis as the above process for creating customer focused bullets.

If you haven’t thought about using coupons, start thinking about it! It can be a great way to increase your overall rank and visibility by using a coupon combined with increased advertising spend. This is the Amazon approved method of increasing rank – not only do they make money, but ultimately customers are choosing winners and losers which they much prefer.

If you’ve been holding off on FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), test it out! You can always change your prices to reflect the higher shipping cost if your product isn’t the right size/weight for optimal FBA cost. The prime badge is so important to conversion.

Get your weekly Amazon fix!

Join us for our free weekly news/live cast about the issues we’re seeing for the week, and one hot tip to improve your business for the week.

Try adding a promotion code to your automated follow-up emails. Please be careful of this – as with any “gray areas,” marketing emails are not permitted, but Amazon does like emails to customers that add value and they certainly like getting additional sales.

If you’re growing:

Be careful not to oversupply on Amazon – but use the cheaper version of replenishment where possible. Even if you are growing and don’t have a warehouse or a life gate, you can manually create pallets in your storage unit area, home, or rented office and ship at pallet rates.

Make sure to call the trucking company to explain your situation so they bring the right equipment! Pallet shipments can be sometimes 10% of the cost per unit of small parcel shipments.

Carefully and objectively evaluate your customer complaints. If they’re consistent, don’t write them off as being “stupid customers.”

I have found that some customers just don’t understand written words as well as others, so having a video is absolutely critical to fixing defects related to customer misunderstandings.

Here’s to a prosperous 2019!

Don’t forget to prepare for special events, like Prime Day – usually mid July – and Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend – usually end of November.

If you’re already confident about your business on Amazon, perhaps it’s time to launch your website, a new social media channel, start pitching to wholesale vendors, or launch on a new channel!

About the Author

I got my first job at Amazon because of my German language skills from my Master’s in History. Take that, people who said I’d never get a good job with my liberal arts degree! I soon learned that I’m not good at taking orders and started my MBA coursework at Seattle University.

I worked at Amazon for 8 years, as a liaison for law enforcement in Fraud/Transaction Risk, a quality and compliance manager in Product Compliance for Amazon Brands and imports globally, and lastly, managing hardware for Website Availability. I love the flexibility that working for clients on Amazon rather than for Amazon affords me.

In my not significant free time, I do fiber crafts such as spinning, crocheting, and embroidery, and I have been in a community band since 2009, playing French Horn, Trombone, or Euphonium depending on the band’s needs that season.